Tigers roar back in 9th with go-ahead grand slam, beat Padres 4-3
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Parker Meadows hit a grand slam on a full count with two outs in the ninth inning to give the Detroit Tigers a 4-3 victory over the San Diego Padres on Thursday night.
Meadows’ opposite-field homer went into the second row in left field off a 100.7 mph four-seam fastball from Padres closer Robert Suarez (8-3). It was the second-fastest pitch a Tigers player has homered off of in the pitch-tracking era that started in 2008, behind only Jeimer Candelario’s homer off of 102.1 mph pitch on Sept. 7, 2018.
“I faced him (Suarez) last night and I knew he had a good heater. I took a couple of big swings in the at-bat. I tried to settle it down and not do too much and get on top of the heater,” Meadows said. “I was sprinting out of the box. I didn’t really know if it had a chance. I saw it go over (the fence) and I was hyped.”
Tigers reliever Ricky Vanasco (1-0) won his first game of the season with a scoreless eighth. Tyler Holton earned his seventh save with a scoreless ninth.
“There is a lot of fight in this group. There is a lot of desire to be good and finish these games,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “Our guys learned that you are never out of it if you just keep stacking good at-bats together.”
San Diego (80-62) had its three-game winning streak stopped and remained three games ahead of Arizona for the top NL wild card. Detroit (71-70) is five games behind Kansas City for the last AL wild card, tied with Seattle.
